Blog October 1, 2026 The Social Home team

Timetables: the school week, on your household's home screen

A timetable for every child, holiday weeks that switch themselves off, this-week changes that reach the Today card, and one class timetable shared by every household in the class.

It’s 07:53 on a Thursday. Emma’s first lesson was cancelled, Leo’s reading starts at daycare in seven minutes, the dentist is at 09:15, and somewhere in the house the swimming bag still needs to be found. A paper timetable on the fridge only covers half of that.

Timetables in Social Home cover the rest. Each child gets a weekly plan that knows about school holidays and about this week’s changes. Today’s lessons are merged with the household calendar on your home screen. And when a class-parents space keeps the timetable, every household in the class sees the same plan, from its own server.

All screens below show sample data: three fictional children, Emma (class 4b), Leo (daycare and music school) and Mia. The sample timetable was entered with German subject names. The app itself follows your language setting.

Three ways to read a week

Find it under Calendar › Timetable. The grid picks its layout for you. When every day shares the same slot times, you get the classic periods layout: numbered rows, a colour per subject, and double lessons merged into one block. When days differ (an early music lesson on Tuesday, a long swimming block on Wednesday), it switches to a timeline where block height follows the clock. Empty stretches are compressed, so the afternoon doesn’t eat the screen.

For kids who can’t read yet there is a picture view: big icons with a small caption, good for a tablet on the kitchen wall. On a phone the week becomes a day view with chips to switch days.

Picture view of the same week, with large subject icons and short captions — **Picture view**Big icons with a short caption, for kids who can't read yet.

Timeline layout in dark mode, with an early music lesson on Tuesday above the 08:00 blocks and a compressed empty afternoon — **Timeline layout**For days with different times. Tuesday's 07:15 music lesson sits above the 08:00 starts, and the empty afternoon is squeezed down.

Phone day view for Wednesday with day chips, a merged swimming double lesson and break dividers — **Day view on a phone**Day chips at the top, a merged double lesson, and dividers for breaks.

Phone day view in dark mode with picture icons — **Picture view, dark**The same day in picture view.

Empty state reading Create your first timetable, with Create school timetable and Start empty buttons — **First run**Start from a school day template, or from an empty plan.

Setting it up in minutes

Nobody wants to type thirty lessons into thirty dialogs. A new timetable starts from a school day template. The day builder then asks three questions (when does the first lesson start, how long is a lesson, how long are the gaps) and works out every time from there. Insert an early lesson with “+ Add before” and the rest of the day moves to match.

Then switch on brush mode: pick a subject and click or drag across the slots it covers. A break band applies to every day, so you fix the 09:35 break once, not five times.

New timetable sheet with name, child, School day or Empty template, day presets and week start — **New timetable**Name, who it's for, template, a Mon–Fri preset and the week start.

Edit lesson sheet with an icon picker grid, time fields and length chips — **Lesson editor**Icon presets, start and end time, and 30/45/60/90-minute chips.

Day builder dialog with start time, lesson length, gap, and a list of lesson and break rows with computed times — **Day builder**Set the first start, lesson length and gap. Every time after it follows when you change a row. Use “+ Add before” for an early lesson.

Day builder shown as a bottom sheet on a phone — **Day builder, phone**The same flow as a bottom sheet.

Brush mode with subject chips at the top and empty slots highlighted while dragging — **Brush mode**Pick a subject, then click or drag across empty lessons to fill them.

Brush mode on a phone with the subject bar docked at the bottom — **Brush mode, phone**The subject bar sits at the bottom, within thumb reach.

Edit break dialog, opened from a break band, that applies to every day — **One break, every day**Editing a break band changes it on every day at once.

Timetable header menu on a phone with Settings, Duplicate, New timetable and Delete — **Timetable menu**Settings, Duplicate, New timetable and Delete. You can reach them even when the + card has scrolled away.

School weeks and holidays

A timetable belongs to one continuous school year, September to July. The school-weeks picker lists every week as a chip. Mark the holiday weeks once and the plan goes quiet during them. Holiday weeks are striped and carry a 🏖, so you can tell them apart without relying on colour. If school runs anyway, one click on “Activate this week” brings the plan back.

School weeks dialog listing September 2026 to July 2027 as week chips, with four holiday weeks striped — **School-year picker**“43 school weeks · 4 holiday weeks”, with All, Invert and Every other week.

School weeks picker on a phone with date fields and window navigation — **Picker, phone**From and until dates, and a 12-month window you can step through.

Holiday week banner reading Not active this week, with an Activate this week button — **Holiday week**The grid pauses, with a one-click “Activate this week”.

When this week is different

Teachers get sick, rooms move and choir rehearsals get added. Switch to This week and change a single lesson for just this week: cancel it, change the subject, room or time, or add an extra lesson. Everything you don’t touch follows the regular plan. Next Monday the changes are gone on their own, and “Clear all” resets the week early if you need it.

This-week view with a cancelled lesson struck through, a subject change, a time change from 09:55 to 10:00 and an extra choir lesson, under a banner reading 4 changes this week — **A week with changes**Cancelled, changed (a different subject, a lesson five minutes later) and Extra, with “4 changes this week · Clear all”.

Lesson dialog in week mode with Cancel this lesson, Change for this week and Restore regular — **Change for this week**The fields show the regular values as placeholders, so you only type what differs.

This-week view with changes on a phone — **This week, phone**

On paper

Sometimes the fridge really is the best place. Print gives you one A4 landscape page, laid out to read just as well in black and white: the regular plan as a table, or this week with its changes marked.

Print preview of the regular timetable as a period table — **Regular plan**One A4 landscape page.

Print preview of this week with five day tables in one row and cancelled and extra lessons marked — **This week**All five days in one row, with empty columns dropped.

Today, on your home screen

This is where the timetable earns its place in a household OS. The Today card on your welcome page merges every child’s lessons for today with today’s events from the calendar. It shows Now and Next at the top, a red now line through the list, and a ⚠ wherever an event overlaps a lesson, like the dentist appointment during English. With several children, a “Show:” filter narrows the card to one of them. Rows that are already over fold away, and once the last lesson ends the card simply says “School’s out”.

Today card on the welcome page with Show filter chips for All, Emma, Leo and Mia, an all-day row and the merged list — **Three children, one card**A “Show:” filter, an all-day row, and earlier rows folded away.

Today card filtered to Emma in dark mode, with a dentist appointment flagged against two lessons — **Filtered to Emma**The dentist is flagged against two lessons, and a cancelled lesson is struck through.

Today card on a phone with a now line at 07:53 and the next lesson in seven minutes — **Morning rush**A now line at 07:53, and “Next: Leo · 08:00 · in 7 min”.

Today card on a phone with the earlier rows expanded — **Earlier rows shown**

Today card after school reading School's out — **After school**“School's out · 6 lessons today”.

Shared with the class

Social Home is also a federated social network, and timetables use that. A class-parents space can keep one timetable for the whole class. The space admins get the full editor. Every member household gets a read-only view (with room, teacher and notes) and a 🏠 Show on my Home toggle that pins it to their own Today card.

The plan travels the way everything in a space does: household to household, between paired servers. When the class rep moves PE to Friday, every pinned household sees the change. Nobody has to send a group message about it, and no central service holds a copy of the class schedule. The Timetable feature is off by default for each space, so a space admin switches it on in the space’s settings.

Space Calendar tab with an Events and Timetable switch, where the admin sees the full editor — **Admin editor**An Events | Timetable switch inside the space's Calendar tab.

Read-only member view without editing controls, with a Show on my Home toggle — **Member view, read-only**No editing controls and no empty slots, just 🏠 Show on my Home.

Read-only member view on a phone with Pictures, List and Home buttons in one row — **Member view, phone**Pictures, List and 🏠 Home in one row.

Read-only lesson details sheet on a phone — **Lesson details**Members can still read the room, teacher and notes.

Pin toggled on, with a toast reading Added to your Today card on days with lessons — **Pinned to Home**The toast tells you when it will show up.

Space settings feature list with the new Timetable toggle — **Space settings**The Timetable toggle is off by default.

Space Calendar tab on the Events side of the Events and Timetable switch — **Events side**The switch remembers your last choice for each space.

Small things that came along

Two settings came out of this work and apply everywhere. You can now choose the first day of the week, and new timetables start their week on it. The language picker remembers your choice across reloads and devices and works with the keyboard.

Appearance settings on a phone with the language chips focused on Español and the first-day-of-week labels in Spanish — **Language and week start**The language chips work with arrow keys, Home and End, and your choice is remembered.

What’s next

Timetables made it clear how much of a household’s day fits on one glanceable screen. So the next feature is a home dashboard: a calm overview of the day for the whole household. It will also work on ESPHome displays, so a small screen by the front door or in the kitchen can show who has what today without anyone unlocking a phone. It’s still being built, and we’ll write about it here when it’s ready to try.

Try it

Timetables shipped in Social Home 2026.10.1. New to Social Home? Getting started takes you from Home Assistant to your first household in a few minutes.